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Book ID: CBB311922388

Evolution Made to Order: Plant Breeding and Technological Innovation in Twentieth-Century America (2016)

Curry, Helen Anne (Author)

University of Chicago Press
Publication date: 2016
Language: English

ISBN: 9780226390086

Publication Date: 2016
Physical Details: 320 pages

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Genetically modified foods (GMO) Genetic engineering Synthetic biology; bioengineering Evolution 20th century United States Americas

In the mid-twentieth century, American plant breeders, frustrated by their dependence on natural variation in creating new crops and flowers, eagerly sought technologies that could extend human control over nature. Their search led them to celebrate a series of strange tools: an x-ray beam directed at dormant seeds, a drop of chromosome-altering colchicine on a flower bud, and a piece of radioactive cobalt in a field of growing crops. According to scientific and popular reports of the time, these mutation-inducing methods would generate variation on demand, in turn allowing breeders to genetically engineer crops and flowers to order. Creating a new crop or flower would soon be as straightforward as innovating any other modern industrial product. In Evolution Made to Order, Helen Anne Curry traces the history of America’s pursuit of tools that could speed up evolution. It is an immersive journey through the scientific and social worlds of midcentury genetics and plant breeding and a compelling exploration of American cultures of innovation. As Curry reveals, the creation of genetic technologies was deeply entangled with other areas of technological innovation—from electromechanical to chemical to nuclear. An important study of biological research and innovation in America, Evolution Made to Order provides vital historical context for current worldwide ethical and policy debates over genetic engineering.

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Reviewed By

Review Nathan Crowe (2020) Review of "Radium and the Secret of Life". Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences (pp. 624-632). unapi

Review Edmund Russell (2017) Review of "How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog): Visionary Scientists and a Siberian Tale of Jump-Started Evolution". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (pp. 26-29). unapi

Review Berris Charnley (January 2021) Review of "Evolution Made to Order: Plant Breeding and Technological Innovation in Twentieth-Century America". Technology and Culture (pp. 285-286). unapi

Essay Review Jim Endersby (2018) Utopian Biologies. British Journal for the History of Science (pp. 147-152). unapi

Review Kingsland, Sharon E. (2018) Review of "The Profit of the Earth: The Global Seeds of American Agriculture". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 406-409). unapi

Review Deborah Fitzgerald (2017) Review of "Evolution Made to Order: Plant Breeding and Technological Innovation in Twentieth-Century America". Annals of Science: The History of Science and Technology (pp. 341-342). unapi

Review Barbara Kimmelman (2018) Review of "Evolution Made to Order: Plant Breeding and Technological Innovation in Twentieth-Century America". Journal of the History of Biology (pp. 387-390). unapi

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